INTRODUCTION:Acupuncture has been reported to be useful for both physical and psychological symptoms. Here we report a case who complained of various physical symptoms due to advanced hepatocellular carcinoma effectively cared for with acupuncture.
Case:A 64-year-old female complained of general fatigue, constipation, and pain in the lower back and leg during her hospitalization for leg edema due to advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Although the leg edema was improved by the administration of albumin, physical symptoms such as pain in the lower back and leg, constipation, or general fatigue remained.
We applied acupuncture with aiming at relaxing muscles (erector spinae, rectus femoris, right adductor) by a local needling approach, and to improve incomplete defecation by applying moxibustion at the acupoint on the abdomen.
METHOD:Faces Scale was used to evaluate general condition. Evaluation of the pain in the lower back and lower extremities were made with a Numerical Scale where 10 indicates the most painful, while 0 indicates no pain.
RESULT:Both general fatigue and pain in the lower extremities wererelieved after acupuncture treatments (FS for general condition improved from 3to 1, NS for pain decreased from 7 to 4). Also, the feeling of incomplete defecation disappeared.

[Objective]Acupuncture has been described to be effective for acute vomiting induced by anti-cancer drugs of chemotherapy. However, the effect of acupuncture for the prolonged acute nausea that continues more than 24 hours from its onset after chemotherapy has not been satisfactorily investigated. In the present study, we report two cases of prolonged acute nausea induced by chemotherapy and effectively treated with acupuncture and moxibustion.
[Case 1] 79-year-old male who had diagnosed as early adenocarcinoma of the lung had chemotherapy by anticancer drug under hospitalization after right lower lung lobectomy. In spite of administration of anti-emetic agents, he complained of mild but persistent nausea that developed within 24 hours after chemotherapy and continued more than 24 hours from onset. Acupuncture at PC6 (Neiguwan) and ST25 (Tianshu) with moxibustion at CV12 (Zhongwan) and ST25 (Tianshu) were performed in addition to anti-emetics.
[Case 2] 64-year-old female who had undergone radiation therapy by gamma knife for metastatic brain tumors of adenocarcinoma of the lung had chemotherapy by anti-cancer drug under hospitalization. Since administration of anti-emetics during the first period of chemotherapy was less effective, moxibustion at ST25 and CV12 in addition to anti-emetics was performed during the second period of chemotherapy.
[Results]In both cases, the prolonged acute nausea was improved showing significant decrease in the VAS immediately after the treatment of acupuncture.
[Discussion]Severe nausea and vomiting might have been suppressed by anti-emetic agents, but mild acute nausea was prolonged and persisted. Prolonged acute nausea caused poor appetite and deterioration of Quality of Life (QOL) of patients in two cases.
Acupuncture with moxibustion and moxibustion could improve prolonged acute nausea and its related symptoms. These results of acupuncture with moxibustion and moxibustion suggest that acupuncture and moxibustion are useful treatment for prolonged acute nausea induced by chemotherapy and can be applied as complementary medicine to patients receiving anti-cancer chemotherapy.